A number of important bills, memorials and resolutions that impact transportation advanced in the 2011 Oregon Legislature. ODOT’s 2011 Legislative Summary provides a guide that analyzes these bills and also lays out the legislative task forces and work groups that will work on transportation-related issues.

Oregon Capitol Building

Among the most significant transportation bills passed by the Legislature:

House Bill 2138 directs the Road User Fee Task Force RUFTF to develop mileage-based user fee pilot programs and specifies new factors when making recommendations to ODOT for mileage-based user fee pilot programs. House Bill 5036 continues the multimodal ConnectOregon program into its fourth biennium. The bill authorizes ODOT to issue $40 million in lottery bonds for the ConnectOregon IV program. ConnectOregon IV will provide grants and loans for air, marine/port, public transportation, and rail projects. ConnectOregon IV requires at least 10 percent of the program’s funding to be allocated to each ODOT region of the state.

Senate Bill 264 makes changes to ODOT’s process for managing access to state highways based on the work of a collaborative stakeholder committee. The goal of the committee was to develop objective standards and procedural changes to provide for a more appropriate balance between managing a safe and effective system of highways and promoting and facilitating urban growth and economic development opportunities in Oregon’s communities. SB 264 revises the access management process to:

Approve an application based on an agreed upon set of objective standards.

Reduce the number of applications requiring deviations from the standards for the approval.

Reduce the mitigation requirements that are currently a responsibility of the developer.

Clarify when a Traffic Impact Analysis is required.

Provide processes for managing disputes and appeals.

SB 795 directs the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) and the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) to jointly review the transportation planning rule, the Oregon Highway Plan and the related guidance documents. The goal of the review is to achieve an appropriate balance between economic development and transportation planning. The bill acknowledges that the two commissions have undertaken a review and directs them to consider revisions to streamline, simplify and clarify the requirements in a number of areas.